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Obsessed

For as long as I can remember, I have been “in like” and what is now an obsession, with journals! I love to go into a bookstore, a Barnes and Noble especially or any place that sells journals or notebooks, and I will peruse through all of time. I’ll study how the well the book has been put together or whether the paper is college or wide ruled and of course, the price. Although a majority of time I go through them quickly and if possible, I’ll flip the books open and feel the smooth, crisp pages and wait for the feeling of inspiration. Just like a reading book, I’ll have to read a few lines of the book and read the summary to see if I want to read it. The same with a journal or notebook, I have to be inspired to write and create, and I often imagine myself sitting at a table and writing in it.

I can and will spend what seems like hours looking at journals and notebook. I love to see the different forms they come in and where they were made. For example, Barnes and Noble always has a fantastic selection, which include journals that are leather bound…real leather binds the paper and is often enclosed with a snap button or letter string. These often come from Italy or Spain and often have intricate designs etched into the front and back covers.

Before my online writing course with Rowdy Kittens, I would buy a journal here or there with the full intentions of filling them with words and pictures. Usually the first few pages get printed with inked words but then falters after a few days. All of a sudden, the motivation is gone or didn’t exist in the first place. Often I’ll give them away after a few months to friends or family or the students I work with, because I feel they will be used more often by someone else.

Then a couple of months ago, I came upon Tammy Strobel’s writing course which I signed up for and coincidentally I had just come into the possession of a red journal that is in the photograph below. It has graphed pages which I really like and it’s fairly thick and sturdy. The cover is some sort of faux leather and somewhat water proof and it is RED. The color does not allow the journal and I to ignore each other, and it will not blend in with all of my other items in my timbuktu bag. I have been using it consistently; since there are so many pages the book is thick and I can’t really lay it flat like a ring binded journal would, so I have been writing my work (profit and non-profit) on one side of the pages and then from the other end, I write my thoughts, homework assignments or a journal entry. Now I am gradually moving my obsession towards filling my red journal with beautiful words of inspiration or ideas for work.